Tasty Thursday: Cookies!!!!

I love cookies. A lot. I love making them. I definitely love eating them. I don't love having to pick only one recipe to share. So, I'll share a few of my favorites. These are some of the best recipes I have, and they are all sooooo good. I'm drooling just thinking of it.

Okay, here goes:

COWBOY COOKIES

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 cups quick oatmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butterscotch chips
½ cup chopped walnuts

Cream the shortening, sugars and vanilla. Add eggs and cream together. Add the remaining dry ingredients. Mix together and add chips and nuts. Mix thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350* for about 12 min.

The Cowboy Cookies are very good, especially if you don't care much for chocolate, like my husband. I did try adding chocolate chips once, but it didn't go over too well. It tasted alright, but it was actually better without the chocolate. Who could have guessed?!

ONE OF EVERYTHING

Original recipe yield: 4 dozen.

1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup butter
1 egg
3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup crisp rice cereal
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Mix together the sugars, oil, butter and egg.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar and vanilla. Stir into butter mixture. Stir in vanilla
Stir in cereal, coconut, oatmeal, and chocolate chips.
Chill for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Make into balls the size of walnuts. Mix and flatten with a glass dipped in sugar and bake for 8-10 minutes.

One of Everything cookies go fast. Very fast. I can barely keep up with them. If I had my big mixer I would probably make 2 or three batches at once. They are good for a really long time too, if you can get them to last that long. (Once, a small container of them got lost in the back of my pantry for about a month, and they were still just as good as when they were first made. They were a little more crumbly, but they still tasted great. No spoilage at all.)

Lastly, here is a recipe I haven't tried yet, but it looks really good. I might try it some day, just for the fun of it.

The Chewy Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2007

8 ounces unsalted butter
11 ounces brown rice flour, approximately 2 cups
1 1/4 ounces cornstarch, approximately 1/4 cup
1/2-ounce tapioca flour, approximately 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/4 cup
10 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1 1/4 cups
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Once melted, pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.

In a medium bowl, sift together the rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca flour, xantham gum, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Add both of the sugars to the bowl with the butter and using the paddle attachment, cream together on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the whole egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Chill the dough in the refrigerator until firm, approximately 1 hour. Shape the dough into 2-ounce balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes, rotating the pans after 7 minutes for even baking. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the pans for 2 minutes. Move the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely. Store cooked cookies in an airtight container.

I don't have most of these ingredients on hand, but I've been wanting to try some of the gluten-free cooking just for kicks. We had a scare with my oldest a few years ago (tested positive on one of the markers for Celiac disease), but thankfully he was alright. It still led me to be interested in the method of cooking without gluten, since it is present in so many things. So, if any of you try it before I do, let me know how they taste.

Don't forget to visit the Pumkin Patch for more great Tasty Thursday recipes!